$20 Hamburgers or minimum wage?

[Don Ferrette]

Sent to me by a good friend, too good not to share..........




For those fast food employees striking for $15 an hour, let's do some math.



At $15 an hour Johnny Fry-Boy would make $31,200 annually.



An E1 (Private) in the military makes $18,378.



An E5 (Sergeant) with 8 years of service only makes $35,067 annually.



So you're telling me, Sally McBurgerflipper, that you deserve as much as those kids getting shot at, deploying for months in hostile environments, and putting their collective behinds on the line every day protecting your unskilled butt???




Here's the deal, Baconator, you are working in a job designed for a kid in high school who is learning how to work and earning enough for gas, and hanging out with their equally goofy high school pals. If you have chosen this as your life long profession, you have failed.



If you don't want minimum wage don't have minimum skills.

 

[happybradboating]

I heard that minimum wage may be going up to $10.50 in the U.S state I live in, so maybe a burger would cost me around say $16.00? What would happen next is everything would cost us more with the snow balling effect of inflation.

 

[Robert Pickard]

Heck if Mcdonalds people get that i am going to get a job there there making more then me with no schooling. Lets see here fast food is just a stop over to go to college who stays there, there whole lives. I can see the franchise owners closing these places because they cant afford to pay that kind of money

 

[Glenn Gates]

Johnny Fry- Boy would make more than what my S.S. and retirement amounts to. But if Johnny and Sally quit their jobs and started making babies. Uncle B.O. would send them a bunch of tax free $$$$ for sitting on their arses. Things have changed Don, A bunch of jobs have been outsourced. Not defending burger flippers. At least they are working and paying taxes(I hope).

 

[JimZaremski]

1) all that says is that we should be paying the men and women in the service more than the pittance we are. Maybe we could do that instead of blowing billions of dollars on boondoggles like the F-35.

2) a lot of minimum wage jobs were taken by older people who lost their jobs during the downturn of 2008-2009, so a pithy one liner like "don't have minimum skills" is overly simplistic. The problem with having a particular skill is that if demand for your skill suddenly contracts, you're screwed.

3) don't fall into the trap of believing every person has every option equally available to them at all times.

this reminds me of an argument I got into about five years ago. I work in automotive, and when the s**t hit the fan in '08 I was legitimately on edge about being laid off which would have left me with few prospects for at least several years. When I was bemoaning the difficulty of being able to find work, this uppity NYC schmuck decided to counter that with "nuh-uh, there's jobs out there! Look, here are 12 openings for Java programmers right now!" Which was the height of tone-deafness. 1) I'm a mechanical engineer, what do I know about Java programming? 2) The jobs were all in the NYC/NJ area, I live in Detroit. 3) just to head off all of you "bootstraps" people, by the time I could learn Java programming competently those jobs would have been long since filled.

 

[Don Ferrette]

Johnny Fry- Boy would make more than what my S.S. and retirement amounts to. But if Johnny and Sally quit their jobs and started making babies. Uncle B.O. would send them a bunch of tax free $$$$ for sitting on their arses. Things have changed Don, A bunch of jobs have been outsourced. Not defending burger flippers. At least they are working and paying taxes(I hope).

I have friends and family serving in the military so it kinda hit home for me, I'm extremely disappointed in how we "take care of" our military personnel and the elderly. And I don't spend much time in fast food places unless I'm traveling and it's the only option but it seems the average adult workers in them now aren't 1/2 as intelligent as the "kids" that used to work in those places years ago.

 

[Glenn Gates]

We have been friends for a long time Don, and I hope you do not take me the wrong way either. The economy has changed for the worse. I served with the Army During the Viet Nam "conflict". And some of my friends came back from there "not quite the same".. I think is a shame how our government treats our Vets.

 

[Hydro Junkie]

What you all are forgetting is that, while an E5 may only be getting that $35K, they also don't have to buy food, pay rent(unless they are married/have kids and live outside of military housing) or worry about medical/dental care. For those that are permitted to live off base, they get a housing allowance set by paygrade and can get a variable housing allowance set by paygrade and location. Using your example, if the person is married, they receive $885 per month and $664 without dependents. Add to that a food allowance of $358 per month and a clothing allowance of $37 per month as well as a yearly replacement allowance of up to $440. You can add a cost of living allowance(if eligible) hazardous duty pay and a possible family separation pay of $250 a month. Not all of these allowances are paid at the same time(FSA won't be paid if your family is with you nor will you be paid a food allowance if deployed where food is provided). If you add up what our military members really get paid, it's not as bad as it sounds

 

[julianconde]

What you all are forgetting is that, while an E5 may only be getting that $35K, they also don't have to buy food, pay rent(unless they are married/have kids and live outside of military housing) or worry about medical/dental care. For those that are permitted to live off base, they get a housing allowance set by paygrade and can get a variable housing allowance set by paygrade and location. Using your example, if the person is married, they receive $885 per month and $664 without dependents. Add to that a food allowance of $358 per month and a clothing allowance of $37 per month as well as a yearly replacement allowance of up to $440. You can add a cost of living allowance(if eligible) hazardous duty pay and a possible family separation pay of $250 a month. Not all of these allowances are paid at the same time(FSA won't be paid if your family is with you nor will you be paid a food allowance if deployed where food is provided). If you add up what our military members really get paid, it's not as bad as it sounds

Mark thats where you are wrong we did not make enough money trust me. when you are a Non comission officer you have to live off post they dont want NCO and regualr soldiers living in the same areas. I was a NCO with over 8 years of service thats how i know

as far as pay when you look at what you pay in Rent and food, water, light, cellphone (required if you live off post), car payment, insurance you maybe have 200-300 dollars to your name at the end of the day.

2nd house and food allowance does not stop even if your deployed just for your info and all combat pay its all paid at the same time brother..

I dont know where your getting your info but its not accurate.

 

[julianconde]

let me add alittle more The so called military health care system is trash unless is life or death dont bother going to the hospital they will miss diagnose you and give you the run around. we are the most powerful military and we underpay our soldiers and our health care is freaking junk i was miss diagnosed for lots of years they just feed you some other BS until i got fed up and told them im going to the Inspector general then i was taken care of after that. I love the military and always will support our soldiers but facts are facts how do i know i went thru all that BS.

Julian

 

[Hydro Junkie]

Julian, I was a married Navy NCO myself, as well as a payclerk my last 2.5 years in. I was living paycheck to paycheck as well so I do agree, it's not enough. When I was in, however, things were slightly different. I received sea, flight deck and base pay with FSA as well as BAQ while deployed with my squadron on ship. When I was at home, I got BAS and BAQ. You have to remember, that was 30 years ago and things have changed on the what's and whens. The point of my post, however was to point out that just because the pay charts say someone with this rank and this much time gets this much pay doesn't know the whole story.

 

[Glenn Gates]

Not bitching about my own life but wish this country would treat it's combat Vets and elderly better. Mark, When I served the Men in Viet Nam were only getting $65.00 a month for combat pay(Army). I think you might back away from this topic. No offense meant.

Glenn

 

[anthony_marquart]

I agree with the comments on the minimum wage and that military should be better paid..

On the minimum wage thing.. how can these people not understand that if they are getting paid based on their shill sets. The cost of everything they / we need will go up proportionately to the inflated pay level.. they will not be better off and many will have no job at all..